Perriello outraises the competition

Rep. Tom Perriello remains on top of the competition for the 5th District seat with more than $1 million raised by the end of 2009, according to the latest Federal Election Commission campaign finance reports due Jan. 31.

Perriello raised $1.03 million in individual, political action committee and other committee contributions — $308,725 of which came in since Oct. 1, according to a news release from Perriello’s campaign. The campaign spent $204,469 in 2009.

More than 28 percent of his money raised came from PACs, according to the report. Of the 2,118 individual donations, 77 percent of those were from small donors — which his finance director Anna Scholl credits to their grassroots support.

“Virginians know that Congressman Perriello is looking out for their interests,” Scholl said in a statement, “not the special interests of lobbyists, big banks, and oil companies.”

Coming in second in fundraising was state Sen. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, with $293,458 raised in 2009. Hurt has $258,976 in cash on hand and spent $34,482. More than 15 percent of his funds came from PACs and according to a news release, more than 450 people donated to the campaign. Although state law prohibits lawmakers from fundraising while the General Assembly is in session, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli recently said the law did not affect candidates for federal office.

Of the seven other declared challengers, none came close to Hurt or Perriello in individual contributions — and are self-funding their campaigns instead. Businessman Jim McKelvey, of Franklin County, who has hinted at a third-party run if he does not win the GOP primary June 8, has lent himself $500,000 in addition to the $1,200 he raised. McKelvey has $484,123 on hand.

Private real estate investor Laurence Verga, of Ivy, also made a significant contribution of $276,579 to his campaign. He loaned himself $213,889 and donated $73,715. Verga also raised $11,025 in individual donations and has $217,836 on hand.

“The question is whether all the Tea Party challengers that are going to be successful are going to have to self-fund,” said Isaac Wood of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics in an interview last week. “That’s the dynamic we’ve seen so far … that all the money has been put up by the candidates themselves.

“They’re impressive numbers, but when you just look at individual donations to them, they’re actually quite bad numbers.”

Ken Boyd, an Albemarle County supervisor, reported $19,976 on hand. He raised $26,149 and loaned himself $11,000. North Garden commercial airline pilot Mike McPadden donated $6,000 and loaned $9,200 to his campaign. He raised $3,228 from individual donations and has $8,726 on hand.

Feda Kidd Morton, a Fluvanna County biology teacher, raised $14,301 in individual donations. She loaned herself $7,000 and donated $3,809. After spending $22,419, Morton has $2,419 on hand.

Businessman Ron Ferrin, of Campbell County, did not begin fundraising until after the first of the year and thus did not have an end-of-year report. Jeffrey Clark, of Danville, who is running as an independent, did not have a report with the FEC either.

Former Rep. Virgil Goode, who lost to Perriello in 2008 by 727 votes and said he would not run for the GOP nomination in 2010, was vague last month about possibly running as an independent. He reported $119,378 on hand as of Dec. 31 — all of which carried over from past reporting periods. Goode did not raise any money from Oct. 1 through the end of the year, but did raise a total of $21,402 in 2009.